GOOGLE teamed-up with Welsh business leaders to help get companies booming online.

Wales’ Business Minister Edwina Hart congratulated one of the Welsh Government’s Business Entrepreneur Champions for helping to bring global online leader Google to the country to help SMEs expand.

Mrs Hart joined Google UK managing director Dan Cobley to launch the ‘Getting Welsh Businesses Online’ campaign to support the online economy by encouraging and guiding firms to develop websites and do more business online.

The Welsh Government is sponsoring the initial phase of a 12-month Google scheme, which offers small businesses in Wales free one-to-one tutorials with Google technicians, the opportunity to have a website for free, as well as teaching guidelines on how to market and advertise themselves online.

Google has been working with Cardiff-based communications company Culture Group to launch and roll out the campaign in Wales.

Culture Group founder Glynn Pegler is one of six champions recruited by Mrs Hart to promote entrepreneurship on behalf of the Welsh Government.

Speaking at the launch, Mrs Hart said: “Wales has a diverse and thriving SME sector which plays a vital and dynamic part in the success of the Welsh economy.

“There has been huge growth in e-commerce and 90% of businesses in Wales now use the internet.

“However, there are still some 83,000 SMEs in Wales that don’t have a website and only 33% of them use the internet to sell their products.

“By working with Google on this exciting initiative, we will be helping to educate many of these small businesses to use the internet to access new markets and opportunities to reach new online customers across the UK and beyond.”

She added: “I am very pleased that Google, as one of the world’s leading online companies, is working together with the Welsh Government and the Welsh-based Culture Group to launch this major UK initiative in Wales. It is a strong endorsement of what we’re trying to do here through our Digital Wales strategy and a commitment to work in partnership with us to help achieve our ambition of becoming a truly digital nation.”

Mr Cobley was in agreement, and said recent Boston Consulting Group report found small businesses actively using the internet grow four times faster than those companies with no web presence. He added: “Together with the Welsh Government and other partners we want Welsh businesses of all sizes to understand the importance of the internet and how easy it is to get online and contribute to the economic growth of the Welsh economy.”

The Digital Wales strategy was launched over a year ago to bring together initiatives to grow the digital economy, to improve digital literacy and tackle the digital divide, to promote the use of the Welsh language.